CONCEPCION, Chile (Reuters) – Residents in Chile’s  earthquake-ravaged city of Concepcion dumped new televisions,  fridges and furniture on roadsides on Sunday to avoid arrest as  police prepared to search homes in a crackdown on looters.

Alarmed by the arrests of 20 looting suspects, people who  had scavenged shops and supermarkets after last week’s  earthquake took advantage of a brief amnesty offered by police,  who said they were preparing to go door-to-door armed with riot  shields and tear gas.

“It was a collective psychosis. They didn’t intend to do  harm,” said Humberto Cifuentes, 53, a heavy machinery  repairman, standing in his yard looking on as police officers  grabbed items left on the street.

“One person went out to steal, and then everyone followed.  This was not done out of necessity. I can’t explain it. It was  unjustified.”

Residents in a middle-class, hillside neighborhood in  Chile’s second-biggest city watched police, some in riot gear,  pick up sofas, stoves, and even crates of liquor, and load them  into pickup trucks and a bus.

In the days after the quake, some people armed themselves  with sticks and burned tires in front of their homes to deter  thieves.